In the last few years, we've seen the rise of "modern Perl", which is a (not well defined, but useful) set of "modern" techniques, helpful modules and tools (and maybe philosophy, too). Perl 5.10 and 5.12 have been released, see perl5100delta and perl5120delta.

It includes advice as simple as using the three-argument form of open and lexical file handles, and helpful modules like Moose. chromatic works on a book that teaches modern Perl.

We've also seen increased blogging about perl, see for example the iron man challenge, perlsphere and planet six.

Perl 6 is developing steadily, and we plan to ship an early adapter's release for Rakudo Perl 6 this quater (so before end of June). The recent Perl 6 spec changes have nearly all been based on user feedback, or questions of the compiler writers.

There has been so much activity in the Perl community that it feels almost impossible to summarize it well in a few lines, so I hope others will chime in and supply all the important facts I forgot.

It includes advice as simple as using the three-argument form of open and lexical file handles

I'm sure you know this, but some readers may get the wrong impression. Neither three-argument open() nor lexical file handles dates from the last 2-3 years. Three arg open dates from 5.6 (released last millennium, when Perl6 was still a term referring to Chips aborted Topaz project).

"Lexical file handles" (or rather, references to file handles stored in a lexical variable) have been available for much longer. I don't have anything older than 5.005_04 at the moment, but I think they worked since 5.000. What was new in 5.6 (and that's what made them popular) was the autovivification of them. The following code uses "lexical file handles" and runs on pre-5.6 code:

use strict;
local *FILE;
my $fh = \*FILE;
open $fh, "</etc/passwd" or die;
while (<$fh>) {
    print;
}
__END__
[download]

Thanks for the addition. What's really new is the effort to use the recommended techniques consistently in the documentation shipped with Perl.

See also Modern Perl Programming Highs and Lows for other opionons of what "modern perl" encompasses.

(Update: that wasn't the thread I meant to link to, but I can't find it right now :./ )

Try to look up Tim Bunce's Debunking Perl myths talk. Has some good points in there.

http://www.slideshare.net/Tim.Bunce/perl-myths-200909

Although I, for one, welcome our new perl6 overlords, I think perl5 might still be around for a long time, unlike perl4 that was quickly replaced by perl5. Reason being that perl6 is almost a new language and a new environment thanks to parrot which will allow libraries from different languages to provide a super-CPAN (at least thats my hope).

I'm afraid it's going to be Perl providing CPAN to them and getting a few thingies in return. How much do you expect from the "There's only one way and it's the my way" pythonistas or the "oh we are so cute and clean" rubyists?

I'd like to be proved wrong.

Jenda
Enoch was right!
Enjoy the last years of Rome.

I think that's a broad brush being used to paint Python and Ruby devs. The Zen of Python mentions "There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious way to do it." There can be multiple solutions, but one of them should be obvious to experienced Pythonistas. Experienced Ruby coders have no illusions about the language being cute or clean - they recognize the warts of the language, but still prefer to work within its world where every value is an easily inspected / modified object.

A super-CPAN could be a nice thing to have. I would be a happy camper if I could easily access Python-Markdown or the Seattle.rb projects from within my Rakudo app.

At least in the area of web frameworks perl could profit from more choice. And even if there were only one python and one ruby library for lets say XML-manipulation, it would be two more for perl.

If the only reason for perl to exist were CPAN it should die. If not, there will be people changing from python or ruby to perl and not only in the other direction.

One big advantage of open source is lots of users that find bugs, locate bugs and even fix bugs. I would not mind pythonistas finding or fixing my bugs.

Is it only me or does this sound like "can you please do the research for my homework and write a full-fledged report for me"?

I'm sorry, But from the way you speak it gives me an impression that I'm out to make some financial gains out of this and I'm making others work for it. For you Information I'm not going to make a single penny out of it.

I'm just out to promote Perl, And I thought If there were a collective information somewhere everybody could use without duplicating effort. I haven't asked any body for code here ...

No, I don't expect yuo would make any money with this but if you write something like "Can some body write an elaborate summary of what has been happening in the Perl world" then it sounds less like a specific question and much more like "here's my assignment for this week - could someone please write it for me?".

This may not have been your intention but it certainly sounded like it. It's another story if you would have asked for people's opinions about recent directions of Perl.

Kind of surprised nobody linked to JT Smith's post at blogs.perl.org - The Second Age of Perl